The Begonia Bribe

by Alyse Carlson

  “Not if she’s guilty, probably, but I’ve been trained to spot inconsistencies. And if we act like cops, she won’t talk one way or the other. As a reporter, she may see me as willing to weigh the angles—the facts—fairly, so she might be more likely to talk.”

  Cam didn’t think Jessica really deserved that, but she couldn’t deny, at least short a squad of cops, that Rob’s approach had a better chance of getting results.

  “She’ll see that you’re impressed with her huge . . . tracts of land,” Cam muttered.

  “Oh, don’t go Python on me. You know I prefer my tracts of land by the handful.”

  They reached Lynchburg at about ten, and Rob suggested a Starbucks stop, always a good idea. They parked on the street and went inside to order.

  “You call,” Rob urged. “I don’t know her, but this is just an interview. Push the reporter angle.”

  He left Cam at a table and went up to get them drinks, Cam eying the picture of what was surely Annie’s coconut mouthgasm. She knew Rob would bring her a skinny latte. It was what she always ordered for herself. Rob dutifully did what she requested, where Annie pushed her to try things out of her comfort zone. She was glad she had one of each.

  Cam stared at her phone as Rob walked to the counter. She doubted Jessica was going to buy her cover story, even if—for Rob—it was the real story. Jessica was a smart woman. To Cam’s surprise, Jessica sounded as if she’d expected the call. She invited Cam and Rob to lunch at noon. Cam had barely had a chance to respond in the affirmative before Jessica hung up.

  Rob brought Cam’s skinny iced latte and his own iced caramel macchiato and sat.

  “She’s feeding us lunch,” Cam said.

  “You ought to be a reporter. I never have sources agree so easily.”

  “She may not really know what we’re there for—she knows you were covering the pageant and that I’m doing the P.R.”

  “What did you say?” Rob frowned.

  “That we wanted to talk to her—that was pretty much it.”

  “Then she can hardly claim you misled her. And honestly, what is the biggest story of the week? She can’t be shocked we want to talk about that.”

  “I guess you’re right there.”

  Killing two hours in Lynchburg when eating and spending time outside were both off the list was a little bit challenging. Rob was relieved to hear that the Anne Spenser House and Garden Museum was unlikely to get them out of the heat. Cam loved the old place with its lush garden and fountain and all the flowering shrubs. She had been there before, though, so they didn’t have to go. Instead they found the Legacy Museum and ducked in there for a while to look at a collection on African-American art and culture.

  At ten minutes before noon, they headed to Jessica’s house. Cam was hyperaware that it was also Mindy’s neighborhood.

  The houses were large and ostentatious, all boasting columns to their second- and third-story roofs. The yards, in Cam’s opinion, were overly meticulous—shaped shrubs and perfectly edged lawns. It was a newer neighborhood; this was where new money and rich young families lived, not the local nobility. Cam thought they’d find a lot of engineers, bankers, and real estate folks, but nobody whose money had been inherited—unless it had been inherited elsewhere and people had relocated to Lynchburg.

  Jessica’s yard had a round garden in the center, highlighted by a cherub bird bath and, of all non-surprises, a hearty section of oleander.

  They parked in the driveway. Cam didn’t think Rob had spotted what she had. His eyes usually glazed over when she discussed plants, and though he’d probably looked up pictures recently, they gave no clues about the height, color variation, or ambiance of the evil that was oleander. She couldn’t take her own eyes off the plant as Rob led her up the walk and rang the doorbell.

  Jessica opened the door formally and led them through to the back of the house where French doors looked out on what Cam would have called a Chinese garden. Hors d’oeuvres were on a table, as was sweet tea in tall glasses. Lack of condensation suggested Jessica had actually poured them as Cam and Rob were coming up the street. Acutely attentive. It was very detailed hostessing.

  “Sit, please. The oven will buzz when I need to fetch the rest.”

  Cam was impressed this wasn’t being done by a servant yet was attended with such care.

  “So what was it y’all wanted to talk to me about?” She eagerly leaned forward, resting her chin on her fingers, looking for all the world like they were the best guests she could have hoped for.

  Rob took a breath to begin, but Cam blurted, “How long have you been friends with the Blankenships?”

  “What?” Jessica sat back again, her brow wrinkled. “Well, that’s not a question I expected.” She paused to think. “Mindy and I worked on a pageant together a long time ago. In fact, it might have been the one she was in.”

  It was Cam’s turn to be surprised. It made sense, of course, that that had been the origin of this relationship, but all week they’d acted like they hadn’t known each other.

  “So when you looked for a house . . .”

  “Mindy introduced me to Barry, and I looked for one in their neighborhood. She spoke highly of it.”

  “So why did you act like you didn’t know Barry when we asked? Why the charade and framing Mindy?”

  “I didn’t try to frame her for murder. I helped her look like a victim to win Barry back. It was a scheme of hers, but don’t you dare tell him. And my act was because it was awkward, seeing Barry away from Mindy. But I thought if I played it cool, I could take information back to Mindy. Barry obviously also didn’t want to admit knowing me, with a girlfriend about.”

  “You tampered with evidence?” Rob asked.

  “Oh, I told the policeman—he knows. I have some silly fine for their trouble, but they didn’t pursue it. I told them as soon as I knew they were involved . . . Well, as soon as Barry fetched Mindy from the police station, anyway. That was the payoff.”

  “Doesn’t that seem a little extreme?”

  “It worked, didn’t it? I just love love.” At that, the buzzer went off. Jessica rose and went to the kitchen, returning with a homemade pizza topped with a garlic sauce, salmon, and capers. Cam’s mouth watered. It was elegant in spite of being a pizza. Jessica then retrieved a large salad of garden greens topped with walnuts, cherries, and goat cheese, along with a vinaigrette.

  “This looks amazing,” Cam said.

  They took a brief break from talking as Jessica served them, but Cam felt she had to dive back in.

  “But Barry’s probably a murderer. Do you want her with a murderer?”

  “Why would Barry murder either of those two?”

  “Well, who do you think did it?”

  “I have no idea, but not Barry—not when he just got his family back.”

  Cam didn’t want to argue, but at the beginning he hadn’t had his family back. She decided not to focus there. “The next most logical suspects are you and Dylan.”

  “And I know how that looks, but it isn’t either of us, either.”

  “Why would Mindy tell us you’d been after a sugar daddy and saw Telly as the perfect opportunity?”

  “Mindy said that?” Jessica’s hand fell to the table and she stared at Cam.

  Rob and Cam both nodded.

  Several expressions crossed Jessica’s face before she could bring herself to speak. Cam recognized hurt, anger, and fear. “I can’t believe that. I think you’re just saying that to get me to say something incriminating, but I don’t know anything incriminating to say.”

  Rob pulled out a recorder. Cam was surprised he had it, as it was her own recording made by her cell phone when she’d talked to Mindy. She’d emailed it to Rob, but she hadn’t expected him to have it with him. He pushed Play and let it run through Mindy’s accusation.

  Jessica sat with her mouth agape. “I can’t . . . She didn’t . . . why, that . . .”

  Her turbulent emotions finally landed on anger. She stoo
d and looked like she might storm over to the Blankenships’ house right then.

  “I’m sure she’s not home yet. Her girls were staying with her mom last night,” Cam said.

  “Well, that . . .”

  “I think maybe we should go,” Rob said.

  “Yes. I’m sorry we disturbed you so badly and put you to all this trouble. It was lovely,” Cam said.

  Jessica didn’t try to stop them. She clearly wasn’t interested in hosting a lunch anymore. Jessica followed them as they walked toward the front door.

  As Cam and Rob made their way along the sidewalk, Cam heard her name shouted by a small voice. She turned to look and saw Lizzie running toward them.

  “Well, hi there.”

  Timing couldn’t have been worse.

  “What are you doing here?” Lizzie shrieked as she threw her arms around Cam’s waist.

  “Er, Cam?” Rob said. “I think maybe we have a situation.”

  Cam looked up from the top of Lizzie’s head to see Jessica marching furiously toward Mindy.

  “Get back in your car!” Jessica roared. “Cam and Rob will watch the girls. You and I need to talk!”

  Mindy’s eyes were wide. “Lauren, go over by your sister.”

  Lauren dropped her suitcase and ran to Cam. “She has a gun!” Lauren cried as Mindy and Jessica tore out of the driveway.

  “Uh-oh. This can’t end well,” Rob muttered. Cam hoped she was the only one who heard.

  She dialed 9-1-1. Rob called Jake.

  * * *

  Rob hung up a few minutes later. “They’re on it. Mindy’s car has a GPS. They will find them.”

  “Did you believe Jessica?” Cam whispered. “She was so convincing as innocent. I mean, other than helping Mindy win Barry. It fit so well.”

  “Yeah, though weren’t you the one who told me she wanted to act?”

  “That’s true.” Cam tried to cling to the idea, but didn’t think anyone could spontaneously be that good of an actress.

  The two of them pulled it together to help the girls. Lauren had a house key, so they went to the Blankenships to settle in until things were resolved. Rob retrieved the pizza from Jessica’s unlocked house, and they tried to get the girls to eat.

  “Miss Jessica won’t hurt Mama, will she?” Lizzie asked, climbing onto Cam’s lap.

  “I don’t think so, honey. I think they just had some important things to talk about.”

  Lauren had hauled her suitcase upstairs, and Cam thought she was putting things away. She came down a short while later, though, and announced their dad was on his way.

  Cam and Rob glanced at each other, knowing this only complicated things. Cam thought they should have anticipated it and headed it off, but it was done now.

  “Don’t question him when he gets here,” Rob whispered. “If this is what it looks like, he may be volatile.”

  Cam thought they needed some answers but conceded. She didn’t want him to get defensive with the girls there.

  Rob had one call from Jake while they waited. He gave them an update before Barry arrived.

  “They’re at a cave in the valley. It’s on somebody’s property, Jake gave me an address.” As he said it, they heard a car door slam.

  Cam was surprised Barry had arrived so quickly; he must have been in town already.

  He had a thousand questions, but Cam pretended she’d just been having a pageant-related lunch with Jessica and had no idea what had set her off. Barry reluctantly let them leave. Cam would have hesitated, but she was sure the man wouldn’t hurt his daughters. They would cause more trouble by staying than going.

  * * *

  As Rob climbed into the Jeep, he looked at Cam and said, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “We need to go to the cave?”

  Rob grinned. “Here goes, then.”

  They headed east and then north, following the directions from his GPS. Luckily, the property had a road back to the area with the caves. They drove back toward the rocky protrusion.

  Mindy’s car sat abandoned, three police cars surrounding it. Jessica had apparently forced Mindy into one of the caves.

  They knew they shouldn’t go in, but neither Cam nor Rob was inclined to sit and wait when there was a story unfolding.

  They skirted the two officers who had stayed with the cars, walking in the sparse scrub. They heard, “Hey, you can’t . . .” as they ducked into the opening of the cave, but they kept going.

  “Could use a flashlight,” Rob said.

  Cam pulled out her keychain, which held a tiny penlight. “Better than nothing.”

  “Barely,” Rob said.

  Rob held Cam’s waist as she led the way. They didn’t have far to walk before they found the police and the two women. They stayed back in the shadows.

  Jessica was being arrested.

  “But I got her to admit it,” she argued. “Just listen to my phone!”

  “Somebody’s a fast learner,” Cam whispered to Rob.

  “You can’t take somebody at gunpoint, ma’am,” the officer said.

  “I’m not saying don’t arrest me for that. I’m saying you have to arrest her for murder! She admitted it!”

  Cam and Rob looked at each other as the pieces began to fall into place. An officer took the phone and put it on speaker. Everyone moved closer to listen.

  “This is ridiculous!” Mindy said. “She had a gun pointed at me. She said to confess or she’d shoot me!”

  Cam doubted that was how it had gone down, but it would probably make an effective legal argument.

  “Let us listen, ma’am.” The policeman clicked Play.

  “I can’t believe after I helped you win Barry back that you’d implicate me in those murders,” Jessica’s voice came from the gadget.

  “I did no such thing,” Mindy said.

  “I heard a recording—you said I’d done it, that I was trying to get Telly’s money.”

  “And you will get Telly’s money,” Mindy’s voice said.

  “No more than if he was alive. He made a trust for the baby when the baby gets to college—it’s generous, but it’s all I get, then or now.”

  “Jessica, they were suggesting Barry did it.”

  “Why didn’t you trust the justice system to just catch who really did it?”

  “Oh, I couldn’t let that happen.”

  “Why not?”

  There was a space of silence.

  “Mindy, did you do it?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “You did, didn’t you?”

  And then Mindy exploded. “I slept with him once to earn my daughter finalist standing, and what does he do? Doesn’t follow through. Ignores me. Won’t return my calls. Not even when I told him I was pregnant!”

  “You were pregnant?”

  “No, but that’s not the point.”

  “Maybe it is. Maybe he knew you were lying. He was horrible but not stupid.”

  “He had to be stopped! He was a monster! And then I saw . . . how I could use the situation to win Barry back . . . how you could help me . . .”

  “But why kill Judith?”

  There was a pause where Mindy seemed to remember herself.

  “I didn’t kill anyone!” she declared.

  Too late.

  “I think that’s enough. Mindy Blankenship, you have the right to remain silent . . .”

  “I never would have believed that,” Cam whispered.

  “I guess you never really know somebody,” Rob said.

  “Oh, Annie could have called this.”

  * * *

  In the days that followed, Rob got a promotion and pay raise for his reporting on the twisted murder investigation, but Cam just felt concern for Lizzie and Lauren. Barry Blankenship was not the selfless person needed to raise two very different daughters by himself.

  She hoped maybe Mindy’s sister could stay involved, but she was halfway across the state.

  Jessica, on the third day after Mindy’s
arrest, sent Cam an email letting her know she planned to keep an eye on the girls. Barry felt bad enough for Jessica’s treatment that he was letting her spend some time with them. She promised to let Cam know how they were.

  Cam had been waiting for Annie when the email arrived, and they decided a little celebration was in order. She pulled out her blender and began throwing in mango, lime, tequila, triple sec, and ice.

  Annie walked in as the first batch was done.

  “Woohoo! You get a star for clairvoyance. How’d you know?” Annie said.

  “Know what?”

  Annie took her computer out of her bag and pointed at the blender, indicating Cam should pour while Annie loaded.

  As Cam handed Annie the mango margarita, Annie pointed at the treasure on her computer screen and tapped the thumb drive Cam knew Annie had brought from Barry’s apartment.

  “Motive for murder number two.” At Cam’s strange look, she explained. “Password for Mindy’s email was LCBEJB—the girls’ initials! So Judith saw the emails Mindy sent trying to blackmail Telly—threatening to expose him, and Judith sent back a counterthreat. Judith said she was sending Telly’s emails to the police and Mindy would be charged with murder.”

  “But what if the murder hadn’t been over this?”

  “I suspect Judith sent something similar to everyone who’d threatened Telly—I mean, heck, there must have been a bunch or the police would have followed this lead. Judith might have been trying to smoke out the killer, but it worked too well.”

  “They can’t use this.”

  “Not this copy, but they can subpoena her email records, and even if she deleted, there are recovery methods if they have this to know what they’re looking for. Or heck, get it from Telly’s computer.”

  “I feel a little bad,” Cam admitted.

  “For her girls, maybe. Sucks to have a mom so set on social standing and contests that she’d throw her life away like this,” Annie said.

  Cam frowned. Annie was right—that was the main point. But still, Cam felt a little sorry for Mindy. As she was thinking it, her phone buzzed. Dylan Markham.

  “Hello?”

  “Miss Harris, how are you?”

  “Fine, you?” She felt strange talking to Dylan after a few days’ break—like he was a part of some other life.